Chapter 1 Chapter 1: SSS-Rank Talent, Starting with a Loan to Buy a Helmet!
"Please blink your eyes! Please open your mouth! Please shake your head! Verification passed, a loan of $500 has been issued!"
"Please blink your eyes! Please open your mouth! Please shake your head! Verification passed, a loan of $300 has been issued!"
"Please blink your eyes! Please open your mouth! Please shake your head! Verification passed, a loan of $700 has been issued!"
...
The line stretched down the sidewalk like a snake baking in the California sun.
Outside the only NeuralVerse game headset retailer in Lakeview, a small town on the outskirts of Fresno, a young man stood at the very front of the queue, phone pressed close to his face, furiously bouncing between loan apps.
The crowd behind him was getting restless.
"Are you seriously still doing this? Hurry up! The game drops in less than an hour!"
"Any normal person would just grab the basic Iron-tier headset for three hundred bucks. If you're broke, stop pretending you're not!"
"Right! Taking out loans just to force a high-tier headset? What's wrong with him? Did he get dropped on his head?"
"The difference between a Bronze headset at ten grand and an Iron one at three hundred is just a slightly better chance at pulling a high-tier talent. Whales can do whatever they want, but for regular people? Absolutely not worth it."
"Kids these days. No impulse control. He'll be crying about this debt for years."
...
Ethan Cole didn't hear a single word of it.
Or rather, he simply didn't care.
The moment he finally scraped together ten thousand dollars across fourteen different lending apps, he stepped up to the glass display counter and pointed at the one headset that stood apart from all the others.
It gleamed under the store's fluorescent lights, a warm, unmistakable bronze color among a sea of matte black.
"I want that one," he said. "The Bronze-tier headset."
Even the salesgirl behind the counter couldn't quite hide the look in her eyes. A deadbeat taking out loans for a premium headset. She'd seen worse, probably. But not by much.
Still, she kept her smile professional and polished.
"Of course, sir. The Bronze-tier headset is priced at ten thousand dollars. Please complete your payment first."
He scanned the QR code.
He paid.
Ethan lifted the box with both hands like it was made of glass, like it was the most precious thing he'd ever touched in his life.
And maybe it was.
With the laughter and side-eyes of the crowd burning into his back, he pushed through the front door and slid into the first taxi he saw.
Ten minutes later.
The cab pulled up in front of a worn-down apartment complex off Cedar Avenue, the kind of building where the hallway lights flickered and the elevator hadn't worked since 2019.
Ethan didn't mind.
He took the stairs two at a time, cradling the box against his chest the entire way, terrified of bumping a corner or scratching the surface.
Inside his apartment, he went straight to his bedroom.
Following the setup guide step by step, he connected the headset to his desktop. Powered up the monitor. Slid the headset carefully over his head.
He clicked on the game icon on his desktop.
【NeuralVerse】
【Ding~ Player iris confirmed. Device activated.】
【Ding~ Generating your talent draw. Based on device tier, Bronze Grade, guaranteed minimum D-Rank talent, congratulations! You have obtained the one-of-a-kind SSS-Rank talent: Infinite Fusion! Please log in at launch and claim your reward via in-game mail.】
【Ding~ NeuralVerse launch countdown: 1 hour, 57 minutes, 35 seconds.】
Ethan stared at the screen.
Then he slowly pulled off the headset.
And exhaled.
"SSS-Rank." His voice came out barely above a whisper. "The highest tier in the entire game."
"I got it."
He pressed his palms flat against his knees, trying to keep himself together. His heart was slamming against his ribs.
He'd known it was coming.
He'd planned for it.
But knowing something and living it were two completely different things.
Because the truth was,
Ethan Cole had lived this before.
On June 8th, 2032, a game unlike anything the world had ever seen went live.
NeuralVerse.
With a 99.9% hyper-realistic virtual environment, indistinguishable from the real world and a permanent real-money exchange system built directly into the economy, it swept across the globe overnight. Every continent. Every country. Every screen.
But no one saw what came next.
The moment NeuralVerse went live, something went catastrophically wrong.
Every player already inside the game was locked in. No logout. No escape. And anyone who hadn't entered within 24 hours of launch was forcibly pulled into the Oracle World by something no one could explain or stop.
There was no return.
And the cruelest part?
Death in NeuralVerse was real death.
No respawn. No second chances. No continue screen.
The world outside collapsed. Laws evaporated. Order shattered.
What replaced it was older than civilization, survival of the fittest, in its purest, most brutal form.
---
In his past life, Ethan had been too poor to afford even the cheapest Iron-tier headset.
He missed the launch entirely.
Twenty-four hours later, that invisible force dragged him into the Oracle World just like everyone else, except he arrived with nothing. No talent draw. No head start. No advantage of any kind.
He'd spent the next year crawling through the lowest, darkest corners of that world. Humiliated. Used. Surviving on borrowed time and borrowed luck.
He told himself it was enough. That he just needed to keep breathing.
He was wrong.
A year in, a beast tide swallowed him whole.
And that was the end of Ethan Cole's first life.
Until he woke up here.
Back in his apartment on Cedar Avenue, Lakeview, California.
Back on the morning of launch day.
He'd spent the first hour just lying on his back, staring at the ceiling, convincing himself he wasn't dreaming. Running through everything he remembered. Everything he'd lost. Everything he now knew.
And then he got up, opened fourteen loan apps, and got in line.
Because Ethan knew something no one else in that line did.
He knew that the Bronze-tier headset at that specific store the only one in Lakeview, held the single highest-ranked talent in the entire game.
In his past life, a kid from a wealthy local family, some factory owner's son from the east side of town, had waltzed in and bought that headset without even blinking at the price tag.
And he'd pulled an SSS-Rank talent from it.
Ethan and every other struggling player in Lakeview, had spent months replaying that moment in their minds. Why didn't I just buy it? Why didn't I find a way?
Small towns like Lakeview only got one authorized retailer. And that retailer only ever stocked lone Bronze-tier headset at a time.
Silver and Gold tiers? You had to order those direct from the official site and wait for shipping.
So this time, Ethan moved first.
As for whether it was fair to the rich kid who'd bought it last time?
Ethan almost laughed at the thought.
Fair.
He'd watched men gut their own brothers for a rare equipment drop. He'd seen a girl abandon a seven-year relationship, genuinely abandon someone she loved and walk straight into the arms of a powerful, repulsive man, all for the promise of protection and gold coins.
That world had no room for fair.
It had one rule, and one rule only, the rule Ethan had learned by dying:
"If a man doesn't look out for himself, heaven and earth will destroy him."
He wasn't making that mistake again.
This life, Ethan Cole had one goal.
One.
"With an SSS-Rank talent in hand, I will claw my way to the very top of the Oracle World."
Money.
Power.
Strength.
Freedom.
He wanted all of it.
---
At exactly 10:00 AM, the notification arrived.
【NeuralVerse has officially launched! Welcome, player. Your world awaits.】
Ethan looked at the screen for a long moment.
Then he picked up the headset, leaned back in his chair, and slid it over his head.
His eyes closed.
The world went dark.
And then
He logged in.
